Topnotch Resort Wedding in Stowe, VT

East Coast Soul was fortunate to be asked to join Ellen & Peter for their stunning Topnotch Resort Wedding in Stowe, VT.

Preprations for Ellen & Peter's Big Day

Our planning for the wedding began months in advance, with Ellen & Peter offering a myriad of musical and logistical options with us for the wedding (we always leave an excess of time for preparation). Ellen & Peter were incredibly helpful during this advanced planning and super helpful throughout.

Once the wedding arrived, East Coast Soul traveled to Stowe, VT and took care of the normal load-in, set up, and sound check process for Topnotch Resort weddings. We get a lot of questions about the logistics of loading in to any given venue. This is a part of the day that we take seriously, spending extra time to avoid rushing, and ensuring our gear is properly tuned for the room.

Ceremony

One aspect of our planning involves outlining exactly what portions of the wedding East Coast Soul will be involved with. For this wedding in particular, Ellen & Peter were also looking for East Coast Soul to help out for their ceremony. Ellen & Peter 's ceremony . East Coast Soul prepared a a Solo Piano performance and Single Mic for speeches. Following East Coast Soul performing roughly 30 minutes of “prelude” music as guests found their seats, the ceremony took place.

Cocktail Hour

As is common, East Coast Soul was asked to provide cocktail hour music. Cocktail hour is a wonderful chance for the bride and groom to unwind after the heightened emotions of the ceremony. We contribute by providing a variety of relaxed music for guests to enjoy listening to. In this case, We provided a Playback and and featured music by artists such as John Coltrane, Miles Davies, and more.

Reception

In a bulk of celebrations, East Coast Soul is asked to take care of MC services for the formal portions of the receptions. This Topnotch Resort Wedding was no different. However, there were actually no formal intros for this wedding.

The couple’s First Dance

With no introductions to take care of, we transitioned into the couple’s first dance.

The couple's first dance is almost always one of the most unforgettable parts of the wedding. It's a chance for the bride and groom to take a moment for themselves. For this specific wedding, we were requested to play the first dance song live, instead of performing it from a recording. With this portion of the evening finished, the guests and vendors took a break for dinner. After as short a break as possible, East Coast Soul's King ensemble returned to the stage.

Parent Dances

In a majority of weddings, we are also asked to play the couple's parent dances. This was a chance for the to join Ellen & Peter to share a brief moment on the dance floor with their father and mother. For this specific wedding, the bride and her father danced together. Peter and his mother danced together as well. Parent dances are a fantastic way to kick off the dance party portion of the evening. We often ask guests to join the couple and their parents on the dance floor, and then move directly in to the rest of the performance.

Dance Party

our dance performances commonly kick off with vintage material. We've discovered this is an excellent approach to get everyone up on the dance floor with songs they're familiar with. Artists like Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Sam and Dave, and more dominated the outset of our performance. We then transitioned into playing tunes by artists like Whitney Houston, Prince, Michael Jackson and more. Finally, we ended the night performing contemporary material that everyone could sing along with.

Guests danced non-stop from beginning to end, and we limited our breaks to ensure people had as much time to dance as possible.

Thanks so much to Ellen & Peter for having us at their beautiful September wedding at Topnotch Resort! And thank you to Kelsey Regan for sharing these beautiful photos with us!